The Headlines - Biden Deploys Troops in Helene Aid Effort, and Trump’s Jan. 6 Case

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Plus, making fall foliage pop for the colorblind.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:How the North Carolina Legislature Left Homes Vulnerable to Helene, by Christopher FlavelleJudge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against Trump, by Alan Feuer and Charlie SavageAfter Missile Attack, Israel May Be Ready to Risk All-Out War With Iran, by Patrick Kingsley, Eric Schmitt and Ronen BergmanHow Russians Serve the State: In Battle, and in Childbirth, by Anton TroianovskiViewfinders Make Fall Foliage Pop for the Colorblind in Virginia, by Emmett Lindner

From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, October 3rd. Here's what we're covering. You can see homes that have moved from, clearly, from one side of the river down the river to another side of the river. And I can only imagine what it's like to have been in one of those homes. President Biden flew over Asheville and the mountains of North Carolina yesterday to survey the damage from Hurricane Helene, which turned creeks into rivers and flattened whole towns.

Massive trees uprooted. Homes literally swept off their foundations, swept down rivers. You know, families are heartbroken. The death toll from the storm has now risen to at least 180 people across six states. Biden ordered the Pentagon to send 1,000 active duty troops to help in North Carolina, where rescue workers are still trying to reach remote communities where people have been cut off by floodwaters, downed trees, and washed out highways. Biden also called on lawmakers to ensure the Federal Emergency Management Agency gets more resources.

The Homeland Security Secretary who oversees FEMA has warned that the agency doesn't have enough funding to make it through the rest of this hurricane season. The sheer amount of rain that poured down in North Carolina was so intense that no amount of preparation could have entirely prevented the destruction there. But the Times has been looking at how decisions by state officials likely made some of that damage worse. Over the last 15 years, Republican lawmakers in North Carolina repeatedly blocked rules that experts say could have prevented some of the storm damage, like limiting construction on steep slopes or requiring homes to be built above expected flood levels. The argument in favor of easing regulations or not adding new regulations has a certain logic to it, right? Proponents make the point that every new requirement or regulation on home builders

tends to increase the upfront cost of a home. And so their sort of argument, their explanation for this is they want to keep homes as affordable as possible. Christopher Flavell reports on the effects of climate change for the Times. The counter-argument, the point that was made to me by engineers and safety officials and Democrats was, sure, but over the lifetime of a home, if it's more vulnerable to storms or to flooding, the cost will only increase, as well as the danger people face as these events become more frequent and severe. Christopher says North Carolina now faces a major question as the state recovers.

Should it rebuild to a higher standard, implementing some of the preparedness measures that Republicans have resisted? That would mean higher upfront costs now, but it would mean people are better protected down the road. So this question of building codes kind of feels wonky and nerdy, but actually is hugely consequential as the state tries to recover from this storm. On Wednesday, we got the fullest picture yet of the evidence that the special counsel Jack Smith has collected about Donald Trump and his efforts to stay in power. Times reporter Alan Foyer has been covering the twists and turns in the federal election case against Donald Trump. The latest development? The judge in the case just unsealed a document from the prosecution that outlines their argument for why Trump should not be immune from charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election.

Jack Smith essentially presented all of the facts that he has collected over the last two years of investigating Donald Trump. Some of the highlights that he has collected over the last two years of investigating Donald Trump. Some of the highlights were the following. When Trump was told by one of his advisors that his own vice president, Mike Pence, was in danger during the riot at the Capitol on January 6th, Donald Trump said, so what? When one of Trump's lawyers told him that his false claims that the election had been marred by fraud

were probably not gonna hold up in court, Trump's response, the details don't matter. And on a flight that Trump and his family were taking after the election, an Oval Office assistant overheard Trump saying, it doesn't matter if you won or lost the election, an Oval Office assistant overheard Trump saying, it doesn't matter if you won or lost the election, you still have to fight like hell. Allen says the prosecution is aiming to show that Trump's actions surrounding the election were the actions of a losing candidate, not the official acts of a president, which the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year are covered by

immunity. Trump's legal team is expected to submit their own arguments to the judge in the next two weeks. Last night, the former president railed against Smith's filing in a TV interview, repeating without evidence that it's part of a government conspiracy against him. This was a weaponization of government, and that's why it was released 30 days before the election. And it's nothing new in there, by the way, nothing new. They rigged the election. I didn't rig the election. They rigged the election. Any decision the judge makes on whether the case against Trump can move forward

is likely to be appealed back up to the Supreme Court. The Times has learned that Israel is still weighing how it will retaliate against Iran for the latest missile strike, but that whatever action it takes will likely be far more forceful than how it's responded before. There's a growing sense that Israel is willing to risk a violent counterattack, with one former senior security official saying, Many in Israel see this as an opportunity to do more to inflict pain on Iran. Israeli officials tell The Times that they might target Iranian oil production sites or military bases, but that the exact nature of the plan might not become clear until after the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which runs until tomorrow night. Meanwhile, the Israeli offensives in Lebanon

and Gaza have continued. Loud explosions were heard in Beirut overnight, as Israel said it conducted a strike there. In the south of Lebanon, where Israel invaded, the Israeli military clashed at close range with Hezbollah fighters. The United Nations says that more than a million people in Lebanon have now been displaced by the fighting. And in Gaza, dozens of people have been killed in Israeli attacks in the last two days. At least 50 were killed in Han Yunis during strikes on several homes and schools being used as shelters. The Israeli military said they were Hamas command centers, though it didn't provide evidence. And in northern

Gaza, at least eight people were killed when Israel bombed an orphanage building. The owner of the building says hundreds of civilians were staying there, mostly women and children. Russia's President Vladimir Putin is doubling down on efforts to pull more everyday Russians into what he sees as a broad fight against the West. For men, he wants them to enlist. The Russian military has an urgent need for troops. According to some estimates, about 1,000 soldiers a day are being killed or injured in its war in Ukraine. The government has now doubled signing bonuses and is allowing criminal suspects to avoid a trial if they enlist. For women, Putin wants them to have more children, not just for future military recruits, but also to keep Russia's workforce up as the country's economy becomes increasingly isolated from the West.

Russian women can now get nearly $7,000 for having their first child, and lawmakers have proposed a new ban on advocating a child-free lifestyle. Anyone who breaks the law could face up to $50,000 in fines. The number of children born in Russia in the first half of this year was the lowest in a quarter century. That's in part because there are far fewer women of childbearing age due to the poverty and chaos one generation ago when the Soviet Union collapsed. And finally, it is fully fall, whether you are ready to admit that or not, and the leaves are turning. That means it's leaf-peeping season, when millions of people fan out to catch the changing reds, yellows, and golds of the forest. But for people who are red-green colorblind, that stunning fall landscape often looks kind of

muted, not a lot of difference between the shades. Now, the Virginia State Park System is trying to change that. This year, it says it was the first park system in the country to install new viewfinders at all of its locations that give colorblind visitors the full effect. The viewfinders use special lenses to expand the range of visible colors. The initiative is led by a Virginia park ranger who's colorblind himself. He told the Times the response has been overwhelming. One visitor told him it was, quote, like a highlighter had been taken to the world. About 13 million people in the U.S. are colorblind to some degree. Problems distinguishing between shades with red and green in them

is the most common. You can see an example of how fall leaves look with and without that colorblind view at nytimes.com. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, the Times reporters covering Iran and Israel explain how each country is weighing what to do next. Listen in the New York Times audio app

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracey Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.